July 8 ~ The Science of MInd in a Year

MENTAL EQUIVALENTS
By Ernest Holmes

See Life Expressed

"One should analyze himself, saying, "Do I look at myself from a standpoint of restriction?  Do I see life limited to the eternal round of getting up in the morning, eating, going to work, coming home, going to bed, sleeping, getting up again and so on?"  Break the bonds of apparent necessity and see life as one continuous expression of the Infinite Self, and as this conception gradually dawns upon the inner thought, something will happen in the outer conditions to relieve the greater demands of necessity.  Free yourself forever from the thought that God may be pleased by a life of sacrifice, that the world is any better because of your misery, or that righteousness is more perfectly expressed through poverty than abundance.  Know that the greater abundance of every good thing which you are bringing out in your life, the more perfectly you are satisfying the Divine Urge within you.  ANYTHING YOU CAN DREAM OF is not too great for you to undertake, if it hurts no man and brings happiness and good into your life.  If one were doing the work he should be doing he would never become tired, because the energy which holds the universe in place is tireless.  The reason we become tired is that we have cross currents of thought about our work.  This arises from a belief in duality - a belief in both Good and evil.

In treating we conceive of the ultimate of the idea but never of the process.  Never treat a process.  We plant a seed and there is in the seed, operating through the creative soil, everything that will cause it to develop, unfold and produce a plant.  The ultimate of effect is already potential in its cause.  This is the mystical meaning of the words:  "I am Alpha and Omega."  Our word for the fullest expression of our life or for its smallest detail should be the alpha and omega, the beginning and the end of the thing thought of.  All cause and effect are in Spirit, they are bound together in one complete whole.  One is the inside, the other the outside of the same thing.

Never let anything cause you to doubt your ability to demonstrate the Truth.  CONCEIVE OF YOUR WORD AS BEING THE THING.  See the desire as an already accomplished fact and rest in perfect confidence, peace and certainty, never looking for results, never wondering, never becoming anxious, never being hurried nor worried.  Those who do not understand this attitude may think you are inactive but remember: "To him who can perfectly practice inaction, all things are possible."

What we know about Subjective Mind proves that It is unconscious of time, knows neither time nor process.  It knows only the completion, the answer.  That is why it is written, "Before they call, I will answer."  Cosmic Creation is from idea to object.  It does not know anything about process; process is involved in it but not consciously.  Correct practice should know that ultimate right action is now, today.  If we say, "Tomorrow it is going to be," then according to the very law we are using we hold the answer in a state of FUTURITY WHICH CAN NEVER BECOME PRESENT.   If a gardener holds his seed in his hand and says, "Tomorrow I am going to plant this seed," his garden will never start growing.  Therefore, Jesus said:  "When ye pray, believe that ye have and ye shall receive."  He did not say believe and you will immediately have.  He said, "Ye shall receive."  He did not deny the natural law of evolution and growth.  Nature operates according to a law of logical sequence."

March 9 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

Inducing Thought ~ Ernest Holmes

"That which thought has done, thought can un-do.  Life-long habits of wrong thinking can be consciously and deliberately neutralized, and an entirely new order of mental and emotional reaction established in Mind.  Merely to abstain from wrong thinking is not enough; there must be active right thinking.  We must become actively constructive and happy in our thinking - not merely passively so.  New and wholesome ideas of life, vitality and hope must be accepted and incorporated into the sub-stratum of our mental life, so that a more wholesome externalization may manifest in our bodily condition and environment.

Since we must all begin right where we are, most of us will be compelled to begin our healing work with a mechanical process.  We should take the highest thought we have, and attempt to enlarge on this consciousness until it embraces a more vital concept of Reality.  Consciousness in this sense means an inner embodiment of ideas. If one wishes to demonstrate prosperity, he must first have a consciousness of prosperity; if he wishes health, he must embody the idea of health.  This is more than faith; it is the knowledge that we are dealing with Law. While a certain consciousness may be mechanically induced, of course, the more spontaneity put into the mechanical word, the more power the word must have.

Choosing Thought

We cannot live a choiceless life.  Every day, every moment, every second, there is choice.  If it were not so we would not be individuals. 

We have the right to choose what we wish to experience.  We have the right to choose the kind of companions with whom we wish to associate; to say in what city and in what type of house we would like to live. We are individuals and the only way we can be individuals is to be spontaneous.  There is no such thing as a mechanistic individuality, it must have the essential elements of spontaneity.  There is no spontaneity and no individuality without prerogative.  There can be no choice unless there is something form which to choose, otherwise the ability to choose would be merely a fantasy.  Therefore, there must be not only the possibility of choice; but the liability of experiencing that which is chosen.

We have a right to choose what we shall induce in Mind.  The way in which our thoughts are to become manifest, we cannot always see - or should we be disturbed that we do not see the way - because effect is potential in cause.  "I am Alpha and Omega," and all that comes between cause and effect.  Cause and effect are really one, and if we have given cause set in motion, the effect will have to equal the cause.  One is the inside and the other the outside of the same thing. A certain, specific, intelligent idea in Mind, will produce a certain, specific, concrete manifestation equal to itself.  There is One Infinite Principle, One Infinite Thought-Stuff, One Infinite Creative Power, but countless numbers of forms, which change as the specific idea behind them changes."